Controlled-Access Dispensing Safes
In the 1970s, when convenience stores began extending their hours, the incidence of armed robberies increased at an alarming rate. Specifically, from 1968 to 1973, robberies of chain stores increased by 167%, compared to an overall increase in robberies of 39% during the same period. The Western Behavioral Sciences Institute, under a grant from the National Institute of Justice and in cooperation with Southland Corporation, conducted research, including social studies of convicted armed robbers, to look at the stores from the robbers' perspective and then devise countermeasures to deter theft. The studies determined that two of the most important factors to a criminal in selecting a store to rob were (1) “the availability of cash” and (2) “the ability to get it quickly.” Tidel Engineering, L.P. “Cash Control: Pioneering Retail Security,” available at http://www.tidel.com/about_industry_retailcash.asp (last visited Dec. 11, 2002).
In about 1977, Tidel Engineering, L.P. (Tidel), a division of Southland Corporation, was formed to develop and produce controlled-access, time-release safes into which money is deposited and from which money is dispensed in a controlled, and preferably recorded, manner. Because these safes limited the amount of money stolen during a robbery, they consequently reduced the incidence of robbery in those establishments having a time-release safe. Specifically, the use of a time-release safe to store an establishment's change fund and excess cash made a commercial establishment less attractive to a potential robber because, other than the minimal required amount in the cash register, there was little readily available cash in the store. Because a time-release safe is programmed to dispense a specified amount of cash on a time-delay basis as a merchant or merchant-approved employee requires funds, (e.g., not more than once every five minutes), a store's excess cash is not available quickly and the robber is forced to go elsewhere. Id. Further, the fact that the safe is programmed to dispense a specific amount of cash no more than once during a certain time period (which period can range from one to 99 minutes) means that, when confronted with a robbery, a merchant or merchant's employee cannot be forced to dispense more than the maximum amount of money the safe has been programmed to dispense, unless the robber is willing to wait until the time delay has expired. Thus, in most instances, a robber will take only the cash in the cash register and the maximum amount dispensed by the time-release safe, limiting the merchant's monetary loss to a few hundred dollars.
During the period from 1975 to 1986 (the 12-year period after Tidel began implementing its first theft-protection time-release safes), convenience stores having these safes experienced a 65% decrease in robberies nationwide. Ten years later, that figure was unchanged despite an increase in robberies elsewhere during the decade. FBI statistics reflect a remarkable nationwide decrease in the incidence of armed robbery in convenience stores from Tidel's inception through 1992. According to the convenience store industry, robberies declined by another 45% from 1992 to 1998. Id.
These time-release safes typically include eight columns of tubes, each column including 12 plastic dispensing tubes approximately 4 inches long and 1¼ inches in diameter. Each column dispenses from its tubes a specified amount and form of money, such as a roll of coins (e.g., $2 worth of nickels or $5 worth of dimes) or a paper bill (e.g., denominations of one, five, ten, or twenty dollars). Each column has an opening at the top that is formed such that it accepts tubes of money one at a time. When a merchant needs cash, the safe's money is accessed by keying into an electronic numerical keypad the appropriate personal pin identification number (PIN) and the amount of money needed. An electronic control system determines from which columns and tubes money is dispensed in order to provide the requested amount of money. Depending on the sophistication of the safe, the merchant, owner, or manager often has the ability to generate reports listing all transactions (deposits and withdrawals) made during a certain time period. The report often includes the following information for each listed transaction: the unique ID number of the individual who made the transaction, the time the transaction was made, and the transaction amount. The ability to generate these reports further facilitates management control of on-site cash, which has historically been a problem for merchants, who are often plagued by “shrinkage.” Shrinkage is the term sometimes used in the retail industry for inventory (cigarettes, candy, beer/soft drinks, etc.) and money/cash that “disappears” from a merchant's location and that cannot be accounted for. Typically an employee is suspected of taking the money but without any proof the merchant cannot prosecute anyone.
Cash-dispensing safes now include sophisticated electronics and software that enable them to perform various services and functions. The current vendors producing these cash-control dispensing safes are Armor Safe Technologies in Vista, California; Tidel in Carrollton, Tex.; FireKing® International in New Albany, Indiana; AT Systems in Indianapolis, Ind.; and McGunn Safe Co. in Des Plaines, Ill. The cost of these safes ranges from $2,500 to $5,000 each, depending on their capacity and features.
Automated Teller Machines
ATMs dispense cash directly from a user's bank account. The primary vendors are Docutel, Inc. of Dallas, Tex.; Diebold, Inc. (Diebold) of North Canton, Ohio; IBM of New York; and NCR Corporation (NCR) of Dayton, Ohio. Foreign vendors include Fujitsu in Japan, Siemens in Europe, and Nixdorf in Europe. ATMs, costing $20,000 to $40,000 each and requiring dedicated, and thereby expensive, leased telephone lines, are typically purchased by banks and are generally installed at a bank or at a location having a business relationship with a bank. In about 1992, Tidel produced a dial-up ATM, which was based on a combination of the company's tube dispensing, cash-control safe (see above) and an off-the-shelf Verifone credit/debit card point-of-sale terminal. Although the resulting ATM had limited capabilities in comparison with the Diebold and IBM ATMs, it cost only approximately $8,000 to $10,000 and did not require the use of a dedicated leased telephone line. Consequently, it was very successful at convenience stores and similar merchant locations.
A few years later, Triton Systems (Triton) of Long Beach, Mississippi started marketing the 9500 series of ATMS, which were a combination of the Triton terminal that trained customers to use ATMs, which Triton had been selling to banks, and a currency dispenser (or bill dispenser) similar to one sold by De La Rue, plc. of Basingstoke, Hampshire, England. The resulting product was much closer in operation and ease of use to the products of Diebold and NCR. Specifically, it eliminated the need to load cash into individual tubes and was thus very successful. Since then, many vendors, including Tidel and Tranax out of Korea, have introduced similar systems into the market. These three companies are now the most successful vendors in the United States ATM market. The newest ATM products, whose sales number in the hundreds of thousands, are not true ATMs, but rather are cash dispensers that do not accept deposits or include the full repertoire of functions provided by the more expensive ATMs. These merchant or off-site ATMs, as they are now called, sell for approximately $4,000 to $8,000 each.
More Recent Concerns in Light of Technological Advances
As stated above, convenience stores, quick-service restaurants, and similar merchant sites are continually attempting to formulate a method by which they can limit the incidence of robbery and the amount of money stolen during a robbery of their establishments. While recent technological advances in time-release safe design have aided in effecting a decrease in robberies, the increasing popularity of electronic gaming stations (e.g., video poker) in many establishments, in combination with the market and consumer pressure to immediately distribute winnings in cash, has resulted in an increase in robberies of commercial establishments having electronic gaming stations. The high cost of purchasing both an ATM and a time-release safe limits many merchants from purchasing both machines. Further, both machines occupy a significant amount of space that merchants are often unable or unwilling to provide. Lastly, some establishments having electronic gaming stations are required by state law to have sufficient cash available to pay up to a certain dollar amount in winnings. In other states, such as Oregon, an establishment that has video poker can pay winnings by cash, check, or a combination thereof, regardless of the amount of the winnings. However, video poker players (customers) prefer to be paid in cash, not by check. Because merchants do not want to discourage players from using the gaming stations or otherwise cause them to leave the establishment, merchants prefer to give their customers the instant gratification of receiving cash. The time-release safes including tube machines are inconvenient for this purpose because they were designed for use in convenience stores, where coins and small bills were the most commonly used currency. However, in establishments having electronic gaming stations, merchants need large-denomination bills rather than coins and small-denomination bills, so that they can pay out large amounts of money to electronic gaming station winners.
Thus the present inventors recognized a need for a CDCS including an ATM system and a controlled-access dispensing safe. Tidel invented a cash dispensing system that “emulates an ATM to access and perform transactions through the EFT system and activates a printer to issue scrip representative of authorized cash disbursements” (abstract of U.S. Pat. No. 5,220,157). However, the present inventors recognized that the Tidel system has two drawbacks. First, all transactions are dependent on an EFT network host. Maintaining an EFT host is expensive, and when the connection with the EFT host becomes unavailable due to power disruption, inclement weather, a busy phone line, or inoperational hardware, the system cannot be used. Second, all transactions result in the dispensation of scrip rather than cash. Customers have to take the scrip, wait in line, and exchange their scrip for cash. This time-consuming process inconveniences the customer and requires the establishment to have sufficient people working at each shift to perform this duty in addition to their other responsibilities.
Consequently, the inventors of the present invention recognized a need for a cost-effective CDCS including an ATM system and a controlled-access dispensing safe that operates independent of an EFT network and that dispenses cash.